Automotive Dialogue

Automotive Dialogue

The APEC Automotive Dialogue (AD) serves as a forum for APEC member economy officials and senior industry representatives to work together to map-out strategies for increasing the integration and development of the automotive sector within the region.

The AD was established in recognition of the crosscutting nature of the automotive industry and of the broad benefits to many economies of trade liberalization and facilitation in this sector. It allows the public and private sectors to work together to improve policy development, to identify barriers to growth and to develop effective cooperation mechanisms for APEC economies to address and reduce impediments.

The goals of the AD are to engage participants in cooperative efforts to foster the growth and development of the regional auto industry and to provide actionable recommendations to APEC Ministers and Leaders.

AD has a clearly defined set of priority action areas based on Leaders’ Declarations and Ministerial Statements as well as instructions from the Senior Officials and Committee on Trade and Investment. The directions for the activities of AD are also set in its Terms of Reference and Work Plan.

The AD first met in 1999 in Indonesia and has continued to meet every year since then.

In 2018, AD members met twice in June in APEC Secretariat, Singapore and October in Chiang Rai, Thailand. In those meetings, the Automotive Dialogue members were updated on 1) market situations in Auto sector, 2) FTA developments, 3) Auto-related tax structures and 4) policies and regulations on vehicles in form of Peer Review.

In particular, AD members agreed to discuss policy-related issues with respect to autonomous driving including electric vehicles.

Last page update:December 2018

Current Activities

The 29th AD Meeting was hosted in Chiang Rai, Thailand from October 30 to 31, 2018. On the margin of this meeting, the APEC-funded workshop on implementing the APEC Electric Vehicles Roadmap was held.